Prior art electrical contacts are well known which have a plurality of fine, axially aligned wires (sometimes called "brush wires") extending from one end of a holder which is adapted to receive a conductor in a socket in the other end. In such applications, one of which is disclosed in the Brush Contact Patent, the holder is made from a cylindrical stock with holes drilled from either end to form two sockets, the forward one for the brush wires and the rear one for the conductor.
The insertion of a conductor into the rear socket can not presently be accomplished with automated equipment and is generally accomplished by hand at a relatively higher expense than if the conductor could be inserted into and fixed within the contact by automated equipment.
The drilling of holes in such a holder requires precise positioning of the drill for the holes to provide a wall which has uniform thickness to give good performance, yet is thin enough to be crimped to maintain the wires therein.
Furthermore, the drilling operation is itself undesirable in that it adds expense to the manufacturing process and further requires that additional machining capacity, machine operators and transfer of parts.
The contact described in the Brush Contact Patent further contemplated that each holder be separately and individually handled during manufacturing and assembly. Such separate handling is time consuming and expensive.
The contact described in the Brush Contact Patent also requires that the sockets be plated with a plating solution to improve the electrical characteristics. This plating is an extra step, and furthermore, it requires in some applications that vents or exit holes be drilled transversely into the socket to allow the plating solution to be removed from the socket.
The electrical contacts described in the Welded Brush Contact Patent have similar sockets drilled into cylindrical stock and thus have similar limitations and undesirable features.
Accordingly, there are undesirable features and limitations of the prior art contacts.